


Distant Echoes

by fightforyourwrite



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Versions
Genre: Beaches, Delta Episode, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Mental Health Issues, Ocean, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 12:45:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7892761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightforyourwrite/pseuds/fightforyourwrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a while, there had been a time when Brendan wasn’t sure that he even had a home until May gave it to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distant Echoes

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: This takes place after the Delta Episode in ORAS. If you haven't played it and don't want to be spoiled, than don't read this. If you have played the Delta Episode and know everything about it, then go right ahead.

No longer does looking at the stars, the sun, or the clouds above Hoenn amuse him anymore. Looking upwards has lost its charm and wonder.

Instead, Brendan looks down. He has no need to look up anymore. What lies up there doesn’t interest him at all.

Besides, the truth remains that Brendan doesn’t want to look up anymore. Right now, he feels as if his days of flying and soaring high above are behind him, and he doesn’t want to go back.

Brendan keeps his eyes down to the ground. The waves of route 103’s peninsula smother his bare feet and dampen him up to his ankles. It feels good to be on the ground again, it’s where he wants to stay. 

May is more assured than him in this setting. Unlike him, she was not plagued by worries, doubts, thoughts during the course the last few weeks. 

She was here on the ground. She stayed home. Frankly, that was probably the best choice. It was safer that way, physically and emotionally. She didn’t have to go into the sky and see what he had to see. 

Lucky her. 

May walks beside Brendan, holding his hand as her feet sink into the saturated sand. 

May likes water, she always has. Brendan thought it was heartwarming to see how happy she was whenever she swam, or how vibrant that expression was whenever she learned more about Hoenn’s oceans. 

The sound of crashing ocean waves were soothing to mostly everyone. Brendan wanted to see if they could soothe him as well.

May grabs his attention by speaking, snapping him out of his trance. 

“You know, every time those waves crash onto those rocks…” She points eastwards of them towards stone slabs sitting on the route’s soaked bank, watching as water sloshed onto the rocks and threw up a spray of mist into the air. “...it’s music to my ears.”

“That makes sense,” Brendan agrees. “You know, it’s hard to believe that people try to record this shit and loop it for people to buy. The ocean’s right out there, you know.” 

“Not everyone’s as lucky to be close to the ocean,” May reminds Brendan. 

He sees the truth in her words. He understands. He knows especially as a native to Johto’s Olivine City. He grew up alongside the ocean waves, though not to the same capacity as May did. He spent half his life watching people come into the port on travels and adventures, and the other half trying to follow that suit. 

“Yeah, I know,” Brendan replies. His attempt at responding in an intellectual manner had failed.

Brendan never understood the beauty of the sea until he moved to Hoenn. Sometimes, he would wonder why he never noticed it sooner. 

Brendan lets go of her hand and places both of his into the pockets of his shorts. He keeps his eyes down and keeps walking. 

May falls behind, she doesn’t follow him just yet. 

She spends a moment simply looking at her best friend, watching as he drags his bare feet through the wet land. 

She can’t help but notice that after he came back to earth, after going up so high in the sky that he wasn’t sure if he would come down, he had changed. 

She got as much details about his scuffle in the sky that everyone else in Hoenn did. What she knew about that day was what the media broadcasted to the world. May had yet to actually ask him about his experience, either because she wasn’t sure when to ask, or she wasn’t sure if Brendan was ready to talk about it. 

Brendan Richardson was a solitary guy. He used sarcasm as a defence mechanism to keep people out because he liked living that way. He liked his loneliness because it was better than hating it. 

But years of putting up walls made it hard for him to let people in, even if he needed the grace of another person to remind him that he was human. 

Once he was a confident, boisterous boy who loved to fight and always worked alone. But now, all Brendan sees when he looks in the mirror is the face of a lost little boy searching for his home. 

Brendan heads up the beach until the grains of sand eventually get lighter. He sits on a dry patch of ground before taking off his hat and raking his hand through his brown hair. He hasn’t brushed it in a long long time. It gets messier and messier every day.

Brendan buries his face in his hands and sighs. He closes his eyes as hard as he can and tries to let the sounds of the crashing waves drown out the distant echoes of explosions that he hears in the corners of his mind. They have been following him from his dreams into his everyday life. 

Drowning out the echoes doesn’t work.

When Brendan takes his face out of his hands and opens his eyes, the first thing he sees is May standing in front of him. He glances up to see her eyes. He clears his throat and speaks first. 

“Hey.”

“Hey.” 

May sits down next to him. She links her arm to his and takes his hand, “Are you alright?” 

“I wish I was,” responds Brendan. He’s close enough to her that he can take in her scent. She has a salty, airy fragrance. Like the ocean. 

There was a part of him, during every up and down of that day, that told him to do what he needed to do so he could get back. 

Not to the ground, not to the dusty paths of Littleroot, not even to his old home in Olivine City, but to her. 

If his heart was a compass, than the needle in the center would spin around endlessly in a cycle of rotation before pointing to May. 

For a while, there had been a time when Brendan wasn’t sure that he even had a home until May gave it to him. Holding her, and being held by her, made him feel normal again. He felt anchored to the earth, assured that he would never have to leave again. 

May presses a kiss to Brendan’s temple and then asks, “Do you want to talk?” 

After a beat of silence, Brendan mumbles, “Not this time.” 

“Then what do you want to do?” 

“I want to sit for a little while longer. I want to be close to the earth for a little more. Just for a bit. That’s all.” 

“Okay.”

Brendan’s grip on her hand tightens, “I don’t deserve you, May.” He scooches over in her direction and rests his head on May’s shoulder. His feet are partially buried in the dry sand, grounding him in a way.

May presses another kiss to Brendan’s forehead and runs her hand through his messy hair. “I know that, Brendan.”

And so they stay. They sit there and let the setting sun in Hoenn’s sky lower down and tint the atmosphere pink. Brendan holds onto her hand as tightly as he can, feeling her as she grounds him to the earth and reminds him that he’s still human. 


End file.
